From our correspondent:

Councillor Potter has now asked Councillor Ray Bloxham to address the Parish Council this coming Monday 29th September on the issue of public speaking. This is what the agenda says:

“Cllr Ray Bloxham, Corporate Business Portfolio Holder will speak on public
speaking at meetings of EDDC, at the request of Cllr Potter. He will however arrive late, due to another meeting”.

Recall that Cllr Bloxham was the person who lead the vote to restrict public speaking at EDDC. During the EDDC debate he read out the full report of recommendations which councillors had already received in written format. After much debate in the meeting, with many councillors repeating themselves and agreeing and repeating the points of others, the Chair asked Councillor Bloxham to summarise his points. He proceeded to go over the entire report again, giving a perfect example of why DMC meetings are so long. He demonstrated perfectly that some councillors have no understanding of the term’summarise’ or indeed the phrase ‘I have nothing to add to the report you have already read’. However the majority of councillors then voted to heavily restrict the right of the public to speak to them for no more than 3 minutes each.

Quite why councillors Potter and Bloxham are so keen to discuss the matter now the vote has taken place I am not sure, but if you would like to ask them that question, come along to Monday nights Parish Council meeting in Newton Poppleford. 8.00 PM in the Village Hall.

Public speaking for the first 15 minutes but I will request standing orders
are suspended when Cllr Bloxham has addressed the meeting if there are
further questions.”